Judges 16-18 - Samson Called to Yahweh

Samson and Delilah

Jdg 16:16-17 LSB - [16] Now it happened when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. [17] So he told her all [that was] in his heart and said to her, "A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like every [other] man."

Jdg 16:19 LSB - [19] Then she made him sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him.

“As long as he is consecrated he is strong; break that, he is weak as water. Now there are a thousand razors with which the devil can shave off the locks of a consecrated man without his knowing it. Samson is sound asleep; so clever is the barber that he even lulls him to sleep as his fingers move across the pate, the fool’s pate, which he is making bare. The devil is cleverer far than even the skillful-barber; he can shave the believer’s locks while he scarcely knows it.” (Spurgeon)

“Not that his hair made him strong, but that his hair was the symbol of his consecration, and was the pledge of God’s favor to him. While his hair was untouched he was a consecrated man; as soon as that was cut away, he was no longer perfectly consecrated, and then his strength departed from him.” (Spurgeon)

“In the opinion of some persons Samson looked much improved when his matted hair was gone. He was more presentable; more fit for good society. And so in the case of churches, the notion is that they are all the better for getting rid of their peculiarities.” (Spurgeon)

Jdg 16:22 LSB - [22] However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

“I wonder why these Philistines did not take care to keep his hair from growing to any length. If cutting his hair once had proved so effectual, I wonder that they did not send in the barber every morning, to make sure that not a hair grew upon his scalp or chin. But wicked men are not in all matters wise men: indeed, they so conspicuously fail in one point or another that Scripture calls them fools.” (Spurgeon)

“When Samson’s hair began to grow, what did it prophesy? Well, first, it prophesied hope for Samson. I will be bound to say that he put his hand to his head, and felt that it was getting bristly, and then he put his hand to his beard, and found it rough. Yes, yes, yes, it was coming, and he thought within himself, ‘It will be all right soon. I shall not get my eyes back. They will not grow again. I am an awful loser by my sin, but I shall get my strength back again, for my hair is growing. I shall be able to strike a blow for my people and for my God yet.” (Spurgeon)

 

Samson’s Revenge

Jdg 16:28 LSB - [28] Then Samson called to Yahweh and said, "O Lord Yahweh, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."

“The Old Testament biographies were never written for our imitation, but they were written for our instruction. Upon this one matter, what a volume of force there is in such lessons! ‘See,’ says God, ‘what faith can do. Here is a man, full of infirmities, a sorry fool; yet, through his childlike faith, he lives. ‘The just shall live by faith.’ He has many sad flaws and failings, but his heart is right towards his God; he does trust in the Lord, and he does give himself up as a man consecrated to his Lord’s service, and, therefore, he is saved.’ I look upon Samson’s case as a great wonder, put in Scripture for the encouragement of great sinners.” (Spurgeon)

Micah’s Idolatry

Jdg 17:6 LSB - [6] In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Pro 14:12 LSB - [12] There is a way [which seems] right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

Ecc 11:9 LSB - [9] Be glad, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be merry during the days of young manhood. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sights of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgment for all these things.

 

Danites Seek an Inheritance

Jdg 18:1 LSB - [1] In those days there was no king of Israel; and in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking an inheritance for themselves to live in, for until that day [the land] among the tribes of Israel had not fallen to them as an inheritance.

Jdg 1:34 LSB - [34] Then the Amorites pressed the sons of Dan into the hill country, for they did not allow them to come down to the valley;

 

Danites Take Micah’s Idols

Jdg 18:30-31 LSB - [30] Then the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the exile of the land. [31] So they set up for themselves Micah's graven image which he had made, all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh.